Flying Trousers, Long Range Development Unit, RAF

These flying trousers were produced for the RAF’s Long Range Development Unit whose Vickers Wellesleys set a long-distance flight record flying direct from Egypt to Australia in November 1938.

Designed and manufactured by the Irvin Air Chute Company of Great Britain, these flying trousers were issued to Flight Lieutenant Henry Hogan. On 5 November 1938, he departed Islamia in Egypt in one of three Vickers Wellesley aircraft of the Long Range Development Unit, bound for Darwin, Australia. His aircraft encountered bad weather and had to land at Kupang, in Timor, to refuel. The other two aircraft had continued, setting a new non-stop distance record of 7,157 miles.